


Night Go Slow

by salemnities



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: AU, And Gabe, Brief Hanzo appearance, Fluff, M/M, Oneshot, Songfic, Symmetra - Freeform, brief allusion to symbra, mentions of smoking, mentions of sombra - Freeform, mostly fluff! There's some underlying angst, real sappy, they're in their uhh late teens early twenties?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 10:11:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14186604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salemnities/pseuds/salemnities
Summary: After an argument with family, Genji texts Jesse, asking him to take him somewhere. Anywhere.





	Night Go Slow

Genji bites down a huff of frustration, tries to stop his knees from bouncing up and down as the clock ticks slowly toward eight. He tries so, so hard to ignore the pointed glares being shot his way, the great waves of disapprovement coming off his brother who is clearly  _ not  _ invested in his homework. He can't quite force himself to miss the insults Hanzo mutters under his breath. 

 

Genji's nearly choking on all the things that he  _ can't  _ say lest he dig himself a deeper hole by the time headlights illuminate the bushes outside and the rumble of a truck echoes around the suburban street. He leaps up as though he sat in something and snatches his jacket from the back of the bedroom door. Hanzo narrows his eyes at him. 

 

“Don't be late,” he says, his voice rising above a whisper for the first time since earlier that evening when he'd yelled at Genji until his voice when hoarse. In fact, Genji's mildly impressed he still  _ has _ a voice. 

 

Genji doesn't reply, just hesitates by the doorway to glower back before breezing out into the hallway, barely refraining from slamming the door before stalking out the back door into the street where Jesse's truck idles. 

 

Jesse throws the passenger door open and Genji slams it shut behind himself as he jumps in. The atmosphere inside the truck cab is so entirely different from that inside his home, and he's kept so much inside over the last few hours that he barks out a laugh the instant he falls back into his seat. 

 

Jesse grins widely at him, if a little cautiously. “Hey there, Sparrow,” he greets Genji. “Doin’ ok?”

 

Genji presses farther back into his seat, willing it to tear open and swallow him. Becoming the seat of a car doesn't sound too bad right now - particularly in Jesse's car, that smells like leather and citrus and, just faintly, cigarettes, quiet classic rock pumping through the speakers. 

 

But then Jesse's hand is in his shoulder and  _ no,  _ he doesn't want to become the upholstery of the beat-up 2004 Chevrolet Silverado with its chipped red paint, he wants to be  _ here _ , to feel Jesse's hand gentle on his arm. Everything about this situation grounds him, settles him. The ever-present queasiness in his stomach subsides and he manages to form a genuine smile and aim it in the direction of his best friend. 

 

“Yeah. Thanks for coming,” he says, presses onto the touch before Jesse has to relinquish his hand to make the turn back out of the cul-de-sac. He'd texted Jesse only half an hour ago, not sure if he'd even get an answer on a Saturday evening. 

 

“You know it's not an issue,” Jesse replies easily, glancing over at him as he turns onto the road that will take them to the highway. “Right?”

 

Genji nods. “I guess,” he mutters. “I'm sorry if I messed up any plans though.” He rests his temple on the window, teeth jittering in his mouth with every bump of the road. Watches as the suburbs turn to farmland, fields of livestock speeding by. Watches as the exit to Jesse's place speeds by too. 

 

“I was just gonna watch a movie with Som,” Jesse says. “I think she's glad I left, actually, she had her ‘friend’,” - he lifts a hand from the wheel to indicate quotation marks - “Satya, over and they were getting pretty snuggly on the couch.” He grins at the road ahead of them. “Pleased to have an out, if I'm honest.”

 

Genji snorts. “I'm grateful,” he says sincerely. “Thank you.”

 

The concerned look from before comes back in full force. “D’you wanna talk about it?” Jesse asks softly, turning the wheel with the palm of his left hand, his right stretched out to lie on Genji's shoulder again. “Need to vent?”

 

Genji shakes his head slowly. He  _ does  _ need to vent, wants to talk about it so badly, but not tonight. “Some other time, I really would like to tell you about it,” he says to the steadily darkening sky outside his window. “But not tonight.”

 

He sees Jesse nod out of the corner of his eye. The hand lifts again, but only for a moment, to snag a lighter and box of cigarettes from the compartment in the dash, and then hands them to Genji before returning to his shoulder. 

 

“Wouldn't mind lighting me up, would you?” Jesse asks, not taking his eyes from the road. Genji knows very well that Jesse is more than capable of lighting a cigarette with one hand, but he's happy to comply. 

 

“I want one, too,” he says, taking one from the nearly-empty box and gently poking it into the corner of Jesse's mouth, where he lights it with as steady hands as possible in the bumpy vehicle. Jesse mumbles a thanks through the cigarette, inhales, then exhales through his nose. He looks Iike a dragon, Genji thinks. Chuckles quietly at the thought. 

 

They sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes, save for the Bon Jovi filtering through the staticky speakers. It's nice. Streetlights illuminate the inside of the truck intermittently, golden light washing over everything and then disappearing as suddenly as it had come. Genji's phone buzzes with a call in his pocket, and he ignores it until the buzzing stops. 

 

“Where are we going?” Genji asks eventually. When he turns his face to Jesse, his cheek brushes the other man's knuckles, resting on his shoulder.

 

“To the old sports field,” Jesse replies around the cigarette. “Nobody around, no light pollution. I've got some blankets in the back seat, we can sit in the truck bed and just hang out. Look at the stars.”

 

It sounds nice. Genji smiles against Jesse's hand. 

 

“Ok,” he says. 

 

*

It's almost nine when they arrive, and the sky is nearly completely dark, only a smudge of purple remaining from the sunset earlier. Stars are twinkling from every inch of the expansive sky, like drops of water on deep blue velvet. Genji, lying back in the truck bed, a duvet thrown over his body to guard him from the night chill, the infinite sky above him, feels so small. Usually, he hates that, hates being looked down on or seen as less. But here, in this field, in this truck, tonight, he's ok with feeling small for a while. 

 

Jesse's rustling around in the back seat and Genji is impatiently awaiting his return. The duvet isn't doing all he'd hoped it would, and he wants the warmth of his friend. 

 

He's just closed his eyes against the bright sky for a moment when something is tossed into his lap, and he opens his eyes again to see Jesse climbing into the trailer with him. 

 

“Pretty fuckin’ cold,” Jesse says, rubbing his hands together before sliding his legs under the duvet, aligning them with Genji's. “Should’ve brought more blankets.” 

 

Genji shakes his head. “This is fine,” he replies. “We'll both warm up if we stay close.”

 

He can feel Jesse's smile through the small space between them, leans into his shoulder so he can feel it against his hair. 

 

“What did you throw at me?” he asks, fingers fumbling over his lap for whatever it was. Jesse spots it first, recovers it from where it had slid off onto the bare trailer floor. 

 

“Chocolate,” he says, as though it should be obvious. “Chili chocolate.”

 

If their proximity won't keep them warm, this will, Genji thinks. Both is good. 

 

They eat the chocolate. They laugh softly. They point out their respective zodiac constellations. Jesse picks out, too, Cancer, and Sagittarius, as well as a smattering of other stars - Sirius, the Pleiades, Cassiopeia. Mars, too, which Genji insists he knew, but in reality, had been struggling to place. 

 

A plane flies overhead, lights blinking, silent. Genji can't help but feel they're in their own little bubble, separate from the world, but still able to observe. 

As he's dwelling on this thought, his phone vibrates again and he finally pulls it out to check, out of force of habit more than concern. It's Hanzo, and he's already called three times. There are six texts, all variations of ‘where are you?’. 

 

Genji rejects the call, texts back, ‘im fine. stop phoning’ and then turns his phone off, tucking it into his jacket pocket. 

 

“I'd turn mine off too, but it died on the way,” Jesse says. “I think it's nice to not have our phones out, out here.”

 

Genji agrees. Not that he'd been on his phone earlier, but turning it off felt like cutting away any distractions. It's just him and the stars and the sky and Jesse now. 

 

He finds Jesse's hand under the duvet - it had been resting on his leg - and takes it in his own. His fingers are immediately laced with Jesse's, and he squeezes gently. 

 

“Jesse,” his voice comes out almost a whisper, and he has to force it into making a sound at all. He's not nervous, just…human.

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Can I kiss you?” So maybe he is nervous, just a little. His heart thuds against his ribs. Jesse knew, of course, that he'd ask - it was inevitable, and on a night like tonight… 

 

“Yeah,” Jesse breathes, and he sounds nervous too, but happy. “Of course.” 

 

Genji twists just a little, lifts his head to Jesse's for their lips to meet. 

 

It isn't an electric kiss, it doesn't send bolts of adrenaline to his stomach. It's soft, and it's familiar, and it's slow. Jesse tastes smoky, and spicy, and sweet, and Genji knows he tastes the same. He finds himself kissing teeth when Jesse smiles, and so he smiles too and they knock teeth and they laugh and then Jesse stops laughing, and sincerely and carefully places a kiss at the corner of Genji's mouth. This time, there  _ are _ bolts of adrenaline, but it's just as soft and sweet as the first kiss, Jesse's lips brushing the edge of his, his stubble scraping Genji's cheek, not unpleasantly. 

 

“Oh,” Genji says, because that's all he can think to say. “Oh.”

 

“Oh?” Jesse pulls back a little, but he's smiling. “That's it?”

 

Genji smirks and puts his free hand around the back of Jesse's neck to pull him closer again. 

 

“No,” he replies. “That's not it.”

 

This time, they kiss with a little more fervor, a little more depth. Genji lets himself be tugged closer to Jesse, be wrapped in his arms. He wraps his own arms around Jesse's waist, slips one hand under his shirt and smiles at Jesse's gasp and hiss of ‘cold!’ 

 

“You know,” Jesse says seriously when they pull apart for air and to look at each other. “There’s something about seeing you under the starlight, when it's just you and me. Like I can see all the way through you.”

 

Genji doesn't know what to say to that, just raises an eyebrow, his cheeks heating, feeling particularly warm in the cold air. Jesse's cheeks are darkening too, but not by much. He takes Jesse's hand again, and lets him continue. 

 

“It sounds dumb, I know” Jesse laughs, “but I mean it. I can see all of who you are, and you're perfect the whole way through.”

 

Now Genji laughs. “Do  _ you  _ know,” he repeats playfully, leaning forward to wrap his arms around Jesse's neck, one hand taking a detour to tuck a stray hair away, “how cheesy that was?” 

 

Jesse snorts, nods, lifts one hand to trace his thumb over Genji's cheekbone and then to rest cupping the back of his head, the other lying on his thigh. “Yeah,” he replies. “But you know me, Sparrow-” their faces are close enough that Genji could almost be speaking the words right into Jesse's mouth. “-honest to a fault.” 

 

Genji kisses Jesse's nose, and then his forehead, and then his cupid’s bow, and then his chin, and then he ghosts the lightest kiss over his lips, the promise of a more fulfilling kiss. 

 

“I think,” he says, leaning in to whisper in Jesse's ear, nevermind that they're alone with nobody to overhear. “That you are the most entrancing person.” He can feel the hair on Jesse's neck standing up, giggles as he sits back. 

 

“Flatterer,” Jesse mumbles, surprisingly shy for someone so quick to spout his own flattery.

 

“Takes one to know one,” Genji replies cheerfully. They lace their fingers together again. Overhead, an airplane blinks its lights and travels across the velvet sky without a sound. Genji makes good on his promise. 

 

*

 

The sparrow on Jesse's ankle is small, round and fat. Genji's pleased with it; he's only ever given a stick’n’poke to himself before. Jesse leans over to check it out, twisting to see it from all angles, then sits still and grins at Genji. 

 

“Can I do one for you?” he asks. 

 

Genji's nods, passes the needle and the ink and the lighter. “Surprise me,” he says, and Jesse does, inking a single blossom into the inside of his ankle, delicate and round-petaled. 

 

“This is beautiful,” Genji says from his position leaning over his leg. “Thank you.”

 

The night seems to last forever, stretching on and on like a spool of thread unwinding. The sun is stuck beneath the horizon and Genji doesn't care so long as he's here. 

 

“The night goes slower,” he says to Jesse. “So that I can make sure to remember every minute of it. I don't want to lose a single moment.” 

 

Jesse smiles fondly. “Neither do I. I don't wanna forget how happy I feel right now.”

 

Genji leans against his chest. “We wont forget,” he says quietly, “I won't forget.”

 

Jesse is quiet. “Do you want to keep not forgetting?” he asks. 

 

Genji looks up, grins. “What are you saying, you cryptic man?” he laughs. “Are you asking if I want to be together? 

 

“Yeah, I guess so,” Jesse laughs too. “Do you?”

 

Genji yawns. He's so tired, his eyelids dragging down, Jesse's chest is so comfortable, so warm. 

 

“Yes.” Once the sun rises, their slow night will be over, but he doesn't want this to end. “I want to.” They'll probably go back to Jesse's house for breakfast, and Gabe will eye them suspiciously, and Genji will tell Jesse why he asked to be taken somewhere - anywhere - and Jesse will hold him. Genji's not ready for that yet, doesn't want to fall asleep, knows he must. 

 

There will be more slow nights. Jesse kisses the top of his head, and they close their eyes to the velvety darkness. 

**Author's Note:**

> My first finished mcgenji! I did fall asleep writing the ending and I'm posting it pretty much immediately at 1am, so. sorry for any weak points.


End file.
